It seems much scarier than it is . . .

I have a feeling that Halloween is going to be a tough-one this year. Not only are we squeezing it in between a million other events in our lives (performances, a fund-raiser, my birthday and our wedding anniversary to name a few -- thank GOODNESS my two business trips this month were postponed!!) but I'm getting the sneaking suspician from Vivian that she's not going to enjoy this holiday very much.

Vivian told her daycare teachers that she wanted to be Cinderella. I don't think she actually knows what that means, though. She loves Cinderella so somehow she latched onto that thought one afternoon. But when I showed her a couple of Cinderella costumes on-line, she just said, "no." I tried Teletubbies too, since she's currently a huge fan. How funny is this??? But she said, "no."

Because of my nutty schedule lately, my Halloween decorations are still sitting in boxes on my living room floor (hey! At least I pulled them from storage!) so I don't know how Viv will react to those just yet. However, she's deathly afraid of the Bath and Body pumpkin soap dispenser we have in the bathroom. And the other day when I was purchasing mums and a cornstalk with the girls, she would . . . not . . . go . . . near . . . a giant blow-up of Frankenstein. He wasn't even a scary version of Frankenstein. But he was huge and depicted all-things-Halloween.

This is very odd behavior from a girl who normally appears to be fearless about everything.

I can't imagine what she's going to be like at her preschool Halloween party . . . let alone the crazy beggars night we have in our neighborhood . . . complete with flaming torches and a suit of armor with a pumpkin head in our front yard.

Needless to say, I will not be spending much money on Vivian's costume this year.

She DOES like candy corn, I've discovered.

All is not lost.